Eagle has a player who is not playing.

Nick Sirianni had three press conferences this week, and he seemed different. He felt less defensive and more optimistic. Sometimes hitting rock bottom can be a good thing. Maybe the players and coaches realised they’re still pretty lucky. Beyond that, the season isn’t over. They still have a chance to do some good. The world isn’t crashing down. You’re never going to turn things around by burying your head in the sand and being depressed. All you can do is keep grinding. Or maybe go to an escape room. This doesn’t feel like a team that is falling apart. Maybe this is me being too optimistic. Maybe this is me delusionally looking for something good. But there is a different vibe around the team this week. Even if that is true, it doesn’t mean anything if that doesn’t translate to better play on the field. The team led 20-3 and 21-6 over the past two weeks. They had a chance at blowing both games wide open. Unfortunately, the team choked in both instances, losing to the Cardinals and almost losing to the Giants. If the Eagles can play with more pep in their step, maybe that can finally give us that blowout we’ve all been waiting for.

Haason Reddick admits the Eagles’ DC change has been a hard adjustment for the defence.
It’s been several weeks now since head coach Nick Sirianni made the decision to transfer the defence from Sean Desai to Matt Patricia, and it has yet to yield positive results. Patricia has spoken to reporters twice in his new role, and both times has played down how different things are under his leadership, saying the defence was a collaborative effort all year, so it’s not something entirely new. While that might be technically true, Haason Reddick spoke on Thursday about how it’s a more difficult adjustment than perhaps was portrayed. When asked how much of what happened on Sunday against the Cardinals was due to the coordinator change, the edge defender was honest about the challenges.

Eye on the Enemy #164: Why Nick Sirianni and Brian Johnson should stick around for 2024 + NFC playoff picture look heading into Week 18 – BGN Radio
John Stolnis shares his thoughts on the current state of the Eagles, why he thinks that Nick Sirianni and Brian Johnson should stick around for 2024 barring some monstrous collapse, the problems on defence, and a wrap-up of the NFC playoff picture heading into Week 18.
1. The biggest difference between A.J. Brown’s first eight games of the season and his last eight games isn’t the number of targets or catches. It’s where those targets and catches are. Through Week 8, Brown was averaging 10.4 targets and 7.5 catches per game. In the last eight games, he’s had 9.3 targets and 5.6 catches per game. So those numbers are down a bit—10 percent on targets and 25 percent on catches. But look at his yards per game, yards per target, and yards per catch: The first eight weeks: 117 yards per game, 15.7 yards per catch, and 11.3 yards per target. The last eight weeks: 64 yards per game, 11.3 yards per catch, and 6.9 yards per target. So yards per game are down 45 percent, yards per catch are down 28 percent, and yards per target are down 39 percent. The big plays have been few and far between. Jalen Hurts is getting him the ball; he’s actually 5th in the NFL in targets over these last eight games, but he’s 22nd in yards. In the first eight weeks, he was also 5th in targets but 2nd in yards. The big plays have disappeared. Through Week 8, Brown was tied with Tyreek Hill for the most 25-yard receptions in the league with 13. In the last eight weeks, he’s tied for 67th with two. The same number as Jalen Reagor during that span. Not ideal. Some of this is on Nick Sirianni and Brian Johnson, but much of it is on Hurts, who’s had opportunities to connect on medium-range and deep balls with Brown and has either misfired, taken the underneath throw, or taken off scrambling. I like what Johnson said on Tuesday: “A.J. is a great player, and we’ve got to force him to the ball sometimes and make sure we get him going.” Brown is way too talented not to be making a tonne of plays down the field.